Why Psyching Yourself Up Before a Workout Could Get You Injured...

Why psyching yourself up before a workout could get you injured.

I used to make this mistake all the time, and still see a lot of trainers and trainees doing the same thing...

Many trainers talk about "psyching up" before your workouts, and recommend adopting a mindset of "attacking" or "going to battle with" the weights.

This is the exact opposite of the proper mindset for exercise.

The problem with this "attack" mindset is it encourages you to focus on the weights and what you are doing to them. To do it aggressively, which leads to a breakdown in your form that reduces how effective each exercise can be while increasing your risk of injury.

When doing an exercise your goal is NOT to make the weight go up and down; it is to use the weight to efficiently and safely load the targeted muscle groups. Creating tension and fatigue to stimulate your body to increase their strength and size.

If you focus more on moving the weights (what looks good to people) you will tend to do it in a way that reduces the efficiency of loading your muscles (what actually gets results) and will be tempted to loosing your form in ways that can increase your risk of injury.

For the goal of building muscle strength, size and overall fitness, how well you perform each repetition of an exercise is far more important than how many repetitions you perform, or how much you lift.

Performing your exercises with a calm, zen-like focus is better for this than "psyching up".

Don't "psyche up" for your workouts.

Do quiet your mind and focus on the sensation of what your body is feeling.